This newsletter was published on 28/03/2013. Click here to view the original newsletter.
Easter is early this year, so it really does make life feel like it is on fast forward for 2013, don’t you agree?
Whatever you will be doing to celebrate the long weekend, the team at Cornerstone wishes you a very happy break with your loved ones, and as much chocolate indulgence as you dare!
This month we discuss outsourcing services versus keeping them in-house, introduce you to Lync; the new MSN messenger and remind you of some important upcoming dates.
If you are fan of seafood or social media, then be sure to check out our customer spotlight and recommended business too!
Until next time, enjoy the read.
Business Tips
Expert tips and reminders to keep you well-informed.
Which costs less: outsourcing or in-house?
Many businesses think it is cheaper, easier and less stressful to hire in-house staff to take care of bookkeeping, management accounting and payroll. In a lot of cases, however, it can be the exact opposite.
The key benefit of outsourcing these services is that the costs related to internal performance are negated, whilst allowing the double benefit of your staff and management being able to focus exclusively on creating maximum value for your business.
The true costs of a hiring an employee are generally understated as they fail to account for the fact that much of the upfront and annual cost of your employees are in addition to their salary. In Australia, these base costs can be summarised as, in excess of the wage that the employee is paid*:
- Ongoing costs (superannuation, leave loading etc).
- Financial costs (training, recruitment, office space etc).
- Fixed Asset costs (computers, stationary, utlities etc).
- Manpower costs (maternity leave, sick leave etc).
Faced with these costs, Cornerstone Group offers a variety of packaged solutions that will provide you with unbiased, high quality management of your bookkeeping and accounting functions, with simple scalability for growth in your organization, for a more economically efficient price than employing in-house.
As we say at Cornerstone:
Do What You Do Best, and Delegate The Rest!
*Based on recent research outlined in an article written by the Cornerstone team. If you would like to read the full article, please get in touch on (02) 9386 1427 or via our contact form.
What’s New?
Big news and events from the Cornerstone office.
Our 3-stage plan for a new way of working.
Last month we told you that our office has moved over to the new Microsoft Office 365 system. We’d like to share our journey over the next few months to show you a streamlined way of converting your office, just in case you were considering taking the leap.
We’ll be honest, it has been a little overwhelming changing our entire way of working on our computers. It’s funny how much you rely on emails and software like Excel and Word, without actually realising, and when it’s changed, it’s really different.
We have planned to implement the change in three stages:
- Microsoft Office 365 (introduce and train staff).
- Sharepoint (our new company intranet).
- Skydrive (moving our computer network to the cloud).
What is Microsoft Lync?
Lync is part of Miscrosoft 365 – it’s new the MSN messenger and we really like it. It allows us to keep in contact all the time, even if we are out of office, because there’s an android and apple app as well as being a desktop software.
It is slowly reducing our email usage internally, and will make a significant difference when we roll it out across our whole company.
Admittidly, we have had a few teething problems. For example, the first comment we recorded was someone saying is “it’s very white!” – which surprisingly, is part of the reason it took a while to get used to it.
We have also found ourselves still sending emails out of habit when we could have used the Lync instant messaging (IM) functionality. A great feaure is that if you receive an email that you think should have been a Lync message, you can reply with an IM from your computer and it links the email with a hyperlink that sits within your Lync account.
If your emails sit within the Microsoft Exchange domain, your Lync conversations are backed up to your emails so you can always refer back to all conversations. Did we mention it also has audio and video capabilities? Very cool!
Once we get our new Sharepoint system up, which is the next phase of our implementation, Lync will be integrated too.
So far, so good! Stay tuned for stage 2 next month.
Learn more on the Microsoft Office 365 website here.
Key Diary Dates
Don’t forget these important upcoming dates!
March
- 21st March: IAS Lodgement Due
- 29th March: Good Friday Public Holiday
April
- 1st April: Easter Monday Public Holiday
- 1st April: April Fools Day
- 7th April: Payroll Tax Lodgement Due
- 12th April: School Holidays Start (clashes with BAS period)
Customer Spotlight: CSJ Seafoods
A quick 5 question interview with one of our clients.
We chat to Colin Marshall about his seafood business and why he outsources to Cornerstone. Plus, he reveals the best seasonal seafood to buy and cook during Winter!
Click here to read the full interview.
We Recommend: Lednyak and Associates
Businesses we have used and that you might find helpful.
Have you ever hoped your business could become famous via social media? Well, Lednyak & Associates can help make your dream a reality!
We recommend them because they are social media strategy experts. If this is something you are interested in learning more about, get in touch via their website today.